Law and Crime Prevention

Abandoned buildings at the Barclay training center in downtown Monrovia, a notorious meeting point for drug dealers and users. Here, a suspect is identified and searched for drugs and weapons. (2008)
UNMIL Photo/Christopher Herwig

Crime and drugs in West and Central Africa: Security Council highlights 'new alarming trends’

19 December 2018
Africa

West and Central Africa faces “disruptive and destabilising” new trends regarding drug trafficking, drug use and other crimes, according to Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), who briefed the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

A scene from inside a women's prison, Haiti, October 2018.
MINUJUSTH/Leonora Baumann

Haiti: ‘Laden with challenges’ but also hope, Mission chief tells Security Council

12 December 2018
Americas

Haiti is “laden with challenges, but also hope”, the head of the UN Mission in the country told the Security Council on Wednesday, against the backdrop of on-going political unrest in the Caribbean country.

Judge Theodor Meron, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, briefs the Security Council.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

UN should be ‘exemplary’ in defending judicial independence, top Judge tells Security Council

11 December 2018
Global

The United Nations should be a role model when it comes to repelling attempts to weaken the rule of law and undermine independent judiciaries around the world, a senior UN judge told the Security Council on Tuesday.

Anti-corruption sign in Namibia.
World Bank/Philip Schuler

The costs of corruption: values, economic development under assault, trillions lost, says Guterres

9 December 2018
Global

Every year, trillions of dollars - equivalent to more than five percent of global GDP - are paid in bribes or stolen through corruption, the United Nations reported on the International Day which serves to highlight the pervasive crime, marked this Sunday.

Genocide survivors at the Mwurire Genocide Site, in Rwanda. (1998)
UN Photo/Milton Grant

In a time of rising xenophobia, more important than ever to ratify Genocide Convention

30 November 2018
Global

Speaking ahead of the UN Day commemorating victims of genocide, the UN chief has called for every country to ratify the Genocide Convention, which still has not been ratified by 45 UN Member States, despite being adopted at the General Assembly 70 years ago.

A walk organized by women in Madagascar for peace and democracy. (file)
UNDP Madagascar

Madagascar: UN chief commends nation on first round of peaceful elections

29 November 2018

The results of the first round of voting to choose Madagascar’s next President were announced on Wednesday, prompting the UN chief to commend the peaceful nature of the vote, which now moves to a second round run-off next month.

Ten-year-old girl sleeps under a mosquito net with many holes, near Maganja da Costa, Mozambique. She has malaria, and is born with a club foot.
UNICEF/UNO0255283/Chris Steele-Perkins

UN health agency launches action plan as global malaria cases rise

19 November 2018
Global

Targets to reduce global rates of infections and deaths from malaria are not being met, says the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2018 World malaria report, released on Monday.

Khieu Samphan (left) and Nuon Chea in the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). File photo.
Photo: ECCC

UN genocide adviser welcomes historic conviction of former Khmer Rouge leaders

16 November 2018
Asia Pacific

Friday’s historic conviction by a United Nations-backed international tribunal of two former Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia on genocide charges has been welcomed by the UN Special Adviser on the issue.

Diego Garcia-Sayan, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. (file)
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Prosecution of Paraguay judges over peasant ‘massacre’ ruling could undermine rule of law: UN expert

5 November 2018
Americas

The planned prosecution of Supreme Court judges who acquitted 11 peasant farmers jailed over the death of police officers during a violent land eviction in 2012, known as the Curuguaty Massacre”, could undermine the rule of law, a UN expert said on Monday.

Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), briefs the UN Security Council.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider

International court rejects Saif Gaddafi call to drop arrest warrant

2 November 2018
Middle East

A call by Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi ­– son of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and de facto Prime Minister of the country during the time of his father’s rule – for an international arrest warrant against him to be ruled inadmissible, was rejected by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Friday.